Summer School Reunion!
by Lawnmowergirl
Summary: Dawn attends the Pokemon Summer Academy for a second time and encounters someone she hasn't seen in three years. Can their love come to fruition before it ends? HeatTag, set post-Unova. MorpheusShipping mentioned.
1. Day 1: A Worthy Arrival

With one hand on the handlebars of a shiny new bike (product of a debt repaid) and the other in the pocket of an old pink coat that no longer hid her curves or functioned as a dress, Dawn coasted to a stop in front of a brick wall she hadn't seen in three or four years. Though her experience here had been short-lived, it had also been really fun, and she'd learned a lot. Dawn had secretly rather enjoyed going to school when she was little, and was the only person she knew who hadn't resented the online courses the Pokémon League had made mandatory the year after she became a Trainer.

Since next summer she would be too old for this program, this was Dawn's last chance to participate in the Pokémon Summer Academy again. She'd kept putting it off because she didn't want to do this without her friends —– she missed them terribly sometimes - but she couldn't pass up this final opportunity.

Dawn dismounted and walked her bike through the open gate into a smallish throng of people ages 13 (her friend Ash had become a Trainer a year before they changed the age requirement) to 17 (Dawn had turned 17 almost a year ago). There seemed to be more present than Dawn remembered. And there was Professor Rowan, presiding over the whole thing. He seemed shorter than the last time Dawn had seen him, and she knew it wasn't just because she'd gotten taller - the professor was slightly stooped over from age, but still as imposing as ever. Wading through the sea of other teenaged trainers, she made her way over to him to ask where she could put her bicycle.

"Not even a hello?"

Dawn froze, starting to sweat. She opened her mouth to speak, but Rowan continued.

"That's alright, I suppose, but don't let it happen again. Don't think you can dispense with greetings just because you're a celebrity now," he joked.

Right. Dawn laughed uneasily, jamming her hand into her coat pocket again to finger the Grand Festival ribbon to which he was referring. "Sorry, Professor Rowan. How's it going? I haven't seen you in maybe a year…"

"Perfectly well, thank you. I'm making fair progress in my research on the legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh. And how have you been doing, aside from your recent triumph?"

That seemed to be all everyone talked about now. "I'm doing alright. I just don't know quite what to do next. But…no need to worry, I'll figure something out."

"Well, I wish you luck in all your endeavors, whatever they may be." Professor Rowan sounded gruff no matter what he said.

"Thanks." Dawn released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. "You too," she added. It seemed lame compared to the sentiment it was returning, but she didn't know what else to say.

"There's a bike rack just around the corner…it's not folding, eh? Do you have a lock?"

"Of course. Thank you." She wheeled the shiny pink ten-speed over to the rack and secured it firmly. She would have been fine with a folding bicycle, but Ash had insisted. Not that he wasn't right in his assessment that girls tend to like shiny, expensive things (although his own girlfriend, Angie, who he'd met at this very place those three or four years ago, didn't), but this bike, as beautiful, well-made, and sturdy as it was, was a real hassle to store and carry. Bikes like this were rapidly becoming less common, and Dawn could see why.

As Dawn returned to the main courtyard, she remembered she needed to check the bulletin board to see which team she was on. Unfortunately, since she'd taken the time to talk to Professor Rowan, everyone else was crowded around the board and she wasn't sure she felt like pushing past people again. So she stood there, craning her neck in a futile attempt to see the board, until a labcoat-clad intern noticed her struggling and came over.

"Can't see the board?"

Dawn nodded sheepishly.

"Here." The woman pulled the top sheet off of the nondescript clipboard she was carrying and handed it to the young Master Coordinator. "Hey, I've seen you on TV. Congratulations on winning the Grand Festival. My whole family was rooting for you."

"Thanks." Dawn wandered away, not really feeling like doing that whole conversation for the umpteenth time. It wasn't like she didn't appreciate the admiration, but there were only so many times she could say the same thing before it felt like she was plagiarizing herself.

When Dawn reached the edge of the crowd, she stopped walking, figuring that among other traveling Trainers, only other Coordinators would recognize her. Here, she looked down at the printed list she'd been given. Searching for her own name, she found it in the green box in the center of the page. And a few rows below it, she saw another name that made her do a double take.

Her not-so-secret admirer. Wow…Dawn hadn't seen him since the Lily of the Valley Conference, back when she was traveling with Ash and Brock. Was he really here? She couldn't be sure, but figured that wasn't exactly a common name…well, if he was here, why hadn't he shown himself yet? Every time they met, possibly including the first time, he would creep up behind her…

Dawn was almost certain this meant it was just somebody else with the same name, but she found herself looking around anyway. And there he was, near the opposite edge of the crowd, his face at a right angle to her field of view as he chattered away to someone standing near him.

Dawn may not have felt like pushing her way through the crowd a few minutes ago, but she did now. This was a truly priceless opportunity. So she did her best to slide around her fellow Trainers, frantically deciding what to say, hoping he didn't notice her moving towards him…She reached her target slightly bruised but undetected.

It was time to give him a taste of his own medicine.


	2. Day 1: Nice to Remeet You!

"Hey, Conway, long time no see," Dawn whispered right behind him, as creepily as she could muster.

Startled, he screamed and lost his balance. His glasses slid off his face and landed in the dirt. Not exactly the reaction Dawn had been going for. Oops…

"I'm so sorry!" she cried. She really meant it, too. She tried to pick up Conway's glasses for him, but he got to them first. They were unbroken, probably thanks to their thick black plastic frames.

And as soon as those black plastic frames were back where they belonged, Conway stared at Dawn, and she stared right back. Three or four years is a long time to an adolescent.

Dawn could see that Conway hadn't lost his tan, his clunky glasses, or his longish, choppy haircut (not that she minded, really), but he had grown a few inches. She had, too, and although her chest was still nothing compared to that of her friend May, she had beautiful long legs that were the bane of miniskirts everywhere, leading her to usually wear designer jeans instead. Her inky blue hair was still clipped into place over her ears, but tied in a ponytail in the back, a style she'd used for many of her early Contests.

After a moment, Conway wailed, "I didn't come here because I knew you'd be here! I didn't even know you'd be here, I swear!"

Dawn wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. She settled for "I wasn't accusing you of anything."

"Oh. Sorry." Conway looked relieved. "I guess my analysis was…unsuccessful. I thought perhaps you were using my old trick against me to make a point."

Dawn was trying to figure out if his voice had gotten any deeper. She didn't think so. Whatever. "I think you failed to take into account the fact that I might not have put so much thought into it." Seriously, why had she done that, she now wondered.

"I suppose I can dish it out but I can't take it." Conway shook his head and his glasses shifted position. He was forced to adjust them to no dramatic effect for once.

As their conversation hit an awkward silence, they realized they were the only ones not crowded around something in the center of courtyard.

Of course, the first event of the Pokémon Summer Academy. The one-day training of a randomly selected Pokémon, followed by a somewhat disorganized competition at the end of the day.

"We'd better get in line." Conway smiled cheerfully.

"Yup." Dawn nodded, and they were out of things to say again.

This awkward silence continued as they waited for their turn to select a PokéBall. All around them, the other Trainers were getting acquainted with the Pokémon they'd be training today. Dawn saw a Muk and wondered if it was the Grimer she'd been teamed up with back then.

Finally, they were given the chance to reach into the box of PokéBalls. Dawn tossed hers upward with a flourish and a Marill flew out. Dawn had only seen this particular species one time before, at a reunion Ash had held for his traveling companions, past and current. She pulled out her PokéDex to get some information on it, but just as she turned the device on, Conway, who was standing nearby with a familiar-looking Monferno, started to speak.

"Ah, a Marill," he said, "Water-type. It evolves into Azumarill and can evolve from Azurill, although it's often born in its own form. See the orb-like thing on the end of its tail? It can inflate that for buoyancy. And I believe they're indigenous to the Johto region, although I've seen them just west of Veilstone - practically in my own backyard."

The Pokémon in question seemed just as impressed as Dawn was. It wiggled its ears and bounced on its stubby feet. "Mariiill!"

Dawn reached down to scoop Marill up in her arms. She was about to mention Ash's friend Tracey and his Marill, but Monferno suddenly tugged violently on Conway's sweater vest.

"Fer! Fer! Monferno!" It seemed to want attention.

"Oh," Conway turned around to look at the Fire-type. "What do you want?" he asked it sincerely.

Monferno pointed to its stomach.

"I'm afraid I don't have any food," Conway said.

"Wait, I do." Dawn reached into her bag and pulled out a Poffin case. After some thought, she picked out a yellow one and placed it in Monferno's paw.

The Pokémon ate it eagerly and seemed satisfied.

"Dawn, I don't have much experience with Poffins and such, but I do know that every individual Pokémon has a favorite flavor…how did you figure out which kind of Poffin this Monferno would like, assuming it wasn't just a lucky guess?"

"I kind of have a knack for figuring out a Pokémon's Contest potential and favorite flavor." Dawn blushed with pride.

"So what sort of Contest potential does Monferno here have? Conway seemed genuinely interested.

"Well, I think it would be good at…displaying its power. Showing off the destructive capabilities of its fire-type attacks. In the Appeal round, I would probably toss up props for it to attack, and then for the-"

Dawn was forced to break off her sentence as Professor Rowan's voice came on over a system of speakers stationed in various places throughout the campus, if you could call it that.

"Now that all participants have their Pokémon for the first day's events, we can declare the Pokémon Summer Academy officially begun!"


	3. Day 1: A Lakeside Mistake!

Conway grabbed Dawn's hand and started to pull her off in some direction. "Come on!" he shouted.

"Wait, where are we going?" she asked as she struggled to hold onto Marill with her free hand.

"The lake!" He stopped walking so he could get her input.

"Yeah…?" Dawn seemed confused.

Conway let go of her wrist, startled by his own actions. "I was thinking we could head out there so you could show me how to show off Monferno's Contest moves where there's plenty of space…and Marill could play in the water."

Dawn thought about that. "Yeah, that could be fun." She liked that although Conway was talking about Contests, he hadn't mentioned the Grand Festival yet. Had he watched it? What was she thinking, of course he had.

"Let's get going, then, shall we?" Conway pushed his glasses up with his finger and they caught the sunlight.

It was 9:30 in the morning; they'd have to return to the courtyard for the end of the day competition in about ten hours, Dawn calculated as they walked.

"I hope we remember the way," she said.

"Don't worry," Conway laughed, "I've come here every summer since I became a Trainer, so I know this place like the back of my hand. In fact," he leaned over to whisper in her ear, "I'm technically not supposed to be here; I turned 18 last month."

Dawn laughed at this. He didn't exactly strike her as the kind of guy who would go around breaking rules. Well, unless she got a restraining order, but she doubted it would come to that.

"What? Why are you laughing at me?" Conway asked, pretending to be deeply offended.

Dawn explained (leaving out the part about restraining orders).

"Well, Dawn, as I'm sure you're well aware, I'm very serious about Pokémon…although not so serious that I don't enjoy battling and spending time with my team, unlike that cretin Paul. So I wanted to do this for as long as I could…I almost didn't this year, but now I'm very glad I did."

Dawn had no doubt as to exactly why this was, and she blushed in spite of herself.

As they approached the lake, Marill began to squirm in her arms. She released it, and it jumped down into the water to splash around gleefully. Conway wondered aloud when the last time was someone had thought to do that.

"Marill, is it okay if I just let you play in the water for a while?" Dawn asked the little water-type.

"Riiiill!" It seemed perfectly content.

"Alright, then." Dawn motioned for Monferno to come over and did the same for Conway. "So, Conway, I'm assuming you'd know what kinds of moves a Monferno can use?"

"You're assuming correctly," Conway replied with a laugh. "Probably Ember, Flame Wheel, Mach Punch, Scratch, things like that."

"And you're assuming correctly, too." Dawn knew that from Ash's Monferno, but she'd wanted to test Conway's knowledge, and he hadn't disappointed her.

"How did you know…?" Conway began to ask.

Dawn remembered he wouldn't have seen it as a Monferno or even as Ash's Pokémon. "Ash has one. He-"

"Wait, let me guess," Conway interrupted. "Was it that Chimchar Paul was using in the Tag Battle Competition?"

"The very same."

"I figured as much. Ash seems like the kind of guy who cares far too much about Pokémon to allow abuse like that to continue. Paul abandoned it, right?"

"Yeah, right after the competition." Dawn glanced over at Monferno, and it seemed indignant at the mistreatment of a fellow member of its species.

"Personally, I'm probably too much of a coward to do something heroic like saving someone - human or Pokémon - from an abusive situation like that." Conway laughed bitterly.

Dawn didn't know what to say to that, so she changed the subject. "…could you help me gather…sticks, rocks, or whatever?"

"Certainly." He seemed grateful not to be talking about that anymore.

Once they'd assembled a sizeable pile of natural materials, Dawn picked up a stick from the top of the pile. She tossed it upwards and caught it deftly a few times. "Alright. Where should we start…?"

"Well, like you said, Dawn, Monferno's fire-type moves…" Conway trailed off, not sounding particularly confident.

"Wait, I just had an idea. Toss up a rock or something, have Monferno Fire Punch it, then go into a Flame Wheel as it lands…"

"Hmm…Simply rolling around after that might not be so spectacular in and of itself…Perhaps if we set up a series of sticks for it to maneuver around…?"

"Like slalom poles?" Dawn asked.

"Precisely."

"That could be really cool. But we've got to start at the beginning; one thing at a time." She turned to Monferno. "Monferno, if we throw some rocks up, can you hit them with Fire Punch?"

The Pokémon looked bemused but seemed to agree enthusiastically.

"Alright, then." Dawn smiled and gathered a few stones in her arms, and Conway did the same.

"I'll go first so I can show you exactly what I mean," she said, then counted to three and demonstrated with a nearly vertical toss, which Monferno Fire Punched quite stunningly.

"Whoa, that was awesome!" With her free hand, Dawn fished around in her bag for another Poffin, which she gave to Monferno. Then she turned to look at Conway and said, "Now it's your turn."

He selected a rock and tried to copy what Dawn had done. It didn't really work, and Monferno ignored it completely.

Before Dawn had time to think about it, she said, "Conway, you throw like a girl." She regretted it almost immediately.

For a moment, he didn't react, then he turned and ran into the forest without a word, dropping the rocks and sticks as he went.

"Shit."


	4. Day 1: Not Too Late to Apologize!

What now? Dawn spent several minutes just standing there, staring off into space.

"Rii?" She suddenly noticed that Marill was tugging on the fabric of her jeans.

"What's the matter?" she asked numbly.

The little water-type waved its arm up and down as close to its eye as it could manage. "Rii-riiill… Marill riill?"

Dawn sat down on the ground. "No, I don't know where Conway went." She ran her fingers through her hair anxiously. She could see out of the corner of her eye that Monferno was sitting on a nearby boulder with its arms crossed, slowly shaking its head.

"I really should go look for him, shouldn't I?" Dawn stood up carefully and sighed. "I had no idea he would react like that."] She stared at the spot at which Conway had entered the forest. If only he hadn't dropped those rocks all at once… "Dammit," she sighed again. "Come on, guys. Let's go find Conway."

Dawn trudged off into the woods and the two Pokémon followed her.

"Conway!" she shouted. "Conway! Where are you? I'm sorry I said that…"

There was no response. Dawn figured either she was out of earshot, or he was ignoring her. She hoped the former was the case.

"Monferno, do you think you could climb up into the trees to see where he went?"

"Fer!" It scampered up into the branches of a nearby maple with simian grace.

"Do you think you can see him?" Dawn shouted up to the Pokémon.

"Ferno!" it shouted back.

"Why don't you climb back down and point me to where he is?" Dawn called back up.

Monferno obliged. After it had scrambled down the trunk of the tree it had been using as a watchtower, it tugged on her pant leg and pointed almost straight forward.

"Thanks, Monferno. …is he far away?"

The fire-type shook its head.

"Alright. Here we go, then." Dawn picked Marill back up and they set off in the direction Monferno had indicated.

It didn't take them long to find Conway once Dawn had a general idea of where he was. The hard part was actually getting there. The forest was thick with trees and the undergrowth was dense. How had he managed this in sandals? Just when Dawn was considering turning back and trying a different way, they broke into a small clearing.

Conway was sitting in the middle of the clearing, facing the opposite direction so he couldn't see them.

"Conway?" Dawn asked, gently, to get his attention.

He stood up and turned around, brushing dirt off the back of his pants. Did it look like he'd been crying? Dawn couldn't tell from this distance.

As Conway came closer, she could see that he probably hadn't. He stopped a few feet in front of her and said "I'm sorry for running away like that."

Dawn sighed. "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing." She paused. "I'm sorry I said you throw like a girl. I really am. I don't even know why I said that."

Conway said nothing for a few seconds as he took his glasses off, wiped them on his sweater vest, and then put them back on. "Apology accepted."

Dawn nodded lamely. After a moment, she said "You probably shouldn't do that…"

"Do what?" Conway asked. "Forgive you?"

"No. Wipe your glasses on your sweater. My friend Zoey once ruined a perfectly good pair of shades by doing that."

Conway smiled. "Thanks for the advice. But don't worry, it's just this once. I have a special cleaning cloth in my bag, back in our room."

'_Our room'… That's right, _Dawn realized numbly, _we're sharing a room. _Uh.

As much as Dawn was curious to know why what she'd said had offended Conway so much, she didn't want to risk offending him further. And anyway, they'd already wasted nearly an hour… "We should… probably get back to training," she suggested tentatively.

"Yes, I think that's an excellent idea." Conway nudged his glasses up with a grin, clearly back to his old self.

"Uh, but first…" Dawn wished she'd thought of this a few minutes ago, "apology hug?" She stretched her arms out, feeling slightly awkward for some reason.

"S-sure." Conway seemed flustered, which was something Dawn hadn't seen before. She'd seen him act smug, creepy, confident, and panicked, but this was new.

He held the embrace a little longer than Dawn considered comfortable, but she didn't really mind. He was warm and solid, and this was the first hug with another human being she'd had since the last time she saw her mom, which had been a couple months ago.

When they let go, Dawn noticed Conway was struggling to hide a grin so wide it threatened to figuratively break his face in two. "Apology definitely accepted. Heheheh." His laugh sounded nicer and definitely less lecherous than Dawn remembered.

"Alright, so what do you say we train Monferno to kick ass in Contests?" Dawn shouted gleefully.

Everyone cheered.


End file.
